New Japan wrapped up Block A of the World Tag League, which would set the first half of the Finals.
Today’s event was held at Athlete Town Nobeoka Arena Sub Arena in Miyazaki and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 611.
Pre-show match: Shoma Kato beat Daiki Nagai.
Match 1: DOUKI, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi beat Gedo, Tome & Stevie Filip. DOUKI beat Gedo with Italian Stretch 32.
Match 2: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls beat Tiger Mask, Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano. Nicholls pinned TM 4 after Electric Blue.
Match 3: Dick Togo, Ren Narita & EVIL beat Katsuya Murashima, Jado & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Narita beat Murashima with a kneebar.
Match 4: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Jacob Austin Young, HENARE & Great-O-Khan by ref stoppage (TKO/injury). HENARE right knee injury.
After Match 4, a Brody King promo was shown. Challenge issued to David Finlay for a match on 1/5 at the Tokyo Dome.
World Tag League Block A:
Match 5: Ryusuke Taguchi & Alex Zayne beat Chase Owens & KENTA. Taguchi pinned KENTA.
Match 6: Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa beat Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb by ref stoppage (TKO/injury). Newman knee injury.
Match 7: Shota Unino & Tomoaki Honma beat Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi. Unino pinned Tauji with Death Slider.
Main Event: Gabriel Kidd & SANADA beat YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. SANADA pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Deadfall. As a result, Kidd & SANADA win Block A and advance to the Finals. The Bishamon 4-peat bid is over. New champions of the tournament for the first time since 2021.
More on the HENARE injury when/if it becomes available because that has main event and tournament implications for Block B.
The last day of Block B is tomorrow at Sub Arena Sendai in Kagoshima. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
UPDATE: It’s now official-King vs. Finlay has been added to 1/5. If Finlay is still the IWGP Global Champion it will be for the title (Finlay is scheduled to defend against Yota Tsuji on 1/4).
UPDATE 2: HENARE & Newman are now both off tomorrow. For the former, that means Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi will win their World Tag League match against HENARE & Great-O-Khan by forfeit and get 2 free points. That also means LIJ will advance to the finals if Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano lose their last match tomorrow (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls). If Oleg/Yano win AND Ren Narita & EVIL lose (Jado & Hiroshi Tanahashi), Oleg/Yano advance. If both Oleg/Yano AND Narita/EVIL win, there will be a 3-way match as the tiebreaker.
Takahashi/Naito will now face Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato in the first match.
